Stop and Breathe

In our fact paced, information heavy world, we often lean towards acceleration. Spending just a few minutes consciously breathing sends signals of balance to our brain, telling us that we are ok, and brings us out from the part of our brain that makes us feel overwhelmed, into a state of calm.

Our world is very much in sympathetic overdrive: we are overly active, overly plugged in, and live in a world of both heated politics and climate. It’s important to learn to cool down, so that we can be as effective in our lives as possible, and conscious breathing is one of the best ways to do that. Some of the breathing techniques that I use to help me calm the mind include:

Lengthen the Exhales

Inhaling deeply may not always calm you down. Taking a deep breath in is actually linked to the sympathetic nervous system, which controls the fight-or-flight response. But exhaling is linked to the parasympathetic nervous system, which influences our body’s ability to relax and calm down.

Abdomen Breathing

Breathing from your diaphragm (the muscle that sits just beneath your lungs) can help reduce the amount of work your body needs to do in order to breathe.

Resonant Breathing

Resonant breathing, also called coherent breathing, can help calm anxiety and get into a relaxed state. I personally use the Breathing App by Eddie Stern, but there are many more in the market, like Calm. These apps are inspired by resonance, the scientific name that describes what happens when our heart rate, heart rate variability, blood pressure, and brainwave function come into a coherent frequency. It occurs spontaneously when we breathe at a rate of five to seven breaths per minute (instead of our usual 15-18). It results in a calm, restful alertness and many other benefits.

The App I use has three settings you can choose to follow. The first is a ball that expands and contracts, indicating your lungs to follow along, a clock that counts down the amount of seconds you should take for each inhale and exhale, and a galaxy setting, with a Moby-produced instrumental music in the background. You inhale during the higher-pitched section, then exhale as it switches over to the lower pitch.

Resonant breathing is like a stress reset button.

Below is a quick demonstration how this all works.

Learn More About Resonance

The effects of resonance supports the innate ability of our body, nervous system, and emotions to restore themselves through the balancing of the complementary branches of our autonomic nervous system, which control our heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, respiration, and many other automatic functions of the body.

There have been hundreds of scientific studies performed on resonant breathing, which show a wide array of benefits, including reduction of inflammation, reduction of stress, improved sleep, improved resiliency, and strengthening of cardiovascular function.

How is it possible for one breathing technique to do so much? The answer lies within our nervous system. By breathing at resonance, we enter into an even balance between the two branches of our autonomic nervous system, the sympathetic (which moves us towards activity) and the parasympathetic, which moves us towards rest.

The sympathetic branch is our accelerator, and speeds us up. The parasympathetic is our braking system, which slows us down. We alternate between these two every second of the day, with each breath we take. The Breathing App, by virtue of toning the vagus nerve, reduces inflammation, and induces a state of restful alertness and mental clarity.

Happy Breathing.

Namaste

Anaxxx